Iris Nebula - 3 Hours

[Colorado CJ]

Sunday night I shot the Iris nebula. I only shot a total of 3 hours, but like always, I get the itch to process what I shoot each night. That is one thing I need to work on, shooting a subject for at least 10 hours before processing the image. The closest I got so far is 4.5 hours or so

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Anyway, this is what I got so far with the Iris Nebula.

Skywatcher MN190 Mak Newt
ZWO ASI 183MM Pro Imaging Camera
Astrodon LRGB Filters
EQ6-R Pro Equatorial Mount
ZWO ASI120MC-S Guide Camera
ZWO ASIAIR

Luminance: 45 minutes
Red: 45 minutes
Green: 45 minutes
Blue: 45 minutes

 

[Ben Egbert]

My hat is off to you for your patience. 4.5 hours seems like an eternity for an exposure. I tried 5 minuets with my 5DSR for a milky way and got garbage for noise, even at a relatively low ISO. Do these camera have cooled sensors?

Gorgeous image by the way.

 

[Colorado CJ]

Yes, they can be cooled to 40C below ambient temperatures. I usually cool mine to -20C.

These are 90 second exposures (total of 120 shots making 3 hours), though I have shot 10 minute exposures when using narrow band filters.

 

[JimFox]

Very cool Andrew. I like how this looks quite a bit.

I think I would be processing these as I shot them too. I also don't think I could wait for the whole 10 hours.

And... as a viewer I am enjoying seeing the progression as you work on these.

 

[AlanLichty]

120 90 second images? How long does it take to process an image like this? Stunning result.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Andrew,

Love the color of the nebula in this one. Nice scale and great tracking it looks like too. A very small nit would be star colors. What was your gain? Wondering if the stars ended up being a bit saturated as not much color in any of the brighter stars, and the smaller stars all look to be yellowish. I also shoot with a 12 bit ASI camera and it is easy to saturate the stars depending on gain and subframe exposure times.

ML